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Mount St Piran

Mount St Piran in the centre of the photo, with the Little Beehive just below the summit

If you look at the Lake Louise Area from a distance you’ll see lots of very noticeable mountains, Mount Victoria, Mount Fairview, the Big Beehive and so on. It seems one of the less talked about mountains is Mount St Piran. In early October 2014 I decided to take on this mountain, after having read about it in the book ‘Scrambles in the Canadian Rockies’ by Alan Kane.

Mount St Piran takes the same route as the one to Lake Agnes (when you come to a fork in the Lake Louise shoreline trail take the right hand fork), but you turn off before you reach the lake and take the trail to the Little Beehive, which is exceptional in itself.

View from the Little Beehive

Stopping to take a break at the Little Beehive it was nice to have the top to myself to take some photographs and read an information board about the foundations of a fire lookout which once stood on the Little Beehive.

View on the way up to the summit towards Mt Fairview and Mt Temple

View looking northwards with the Trans-Canada Highway in the foreground

Carrying on with the hike, I had to backtrack a little to find the trail for Mount St Piran, which isn’t particularly well marked. The trail off from the Little Beehive trail was pretty feint at the start but soon became a more well-defined, if narrow, switchback trail.

Views from the shale-covered summit

Another summit view looking northwards

It didn’t take particularly long to reach the summit, there were a couple of rocky sections, and the summit is covered in scree. It was fairly windy up top, so I didn’t spend much time up there after taking a couple of photos.

Looking from a col on the way back down to Lake Agnes taking the alternate route

Cliffs on Mount Niblock

The easiest way back down is to return the same way via the Little Beehive, and I really recommend taking this route. In ‘Scrambles in the Canadian Rockies’ by Alan Kane, another return route is described, which goes down the back of Mount St Piran – I took this route and it is very much a scramble, if you decide to take this route used the aforementioned book by Alan Kane and take a detailed topographic map (and be prepared!).

Heading down towards Lake Agnes

Valley at the back of Lake Agnes

A stop back at Lake Agnes makes a nice break on the way down, and another photographic opportunity.

Crossing the stream which flows into Lake Agnes

Lake Agnes in sight!

The total return distance for this hike is approximately 13km (roughly 8 miles) with an elevation gain of 900 metres (approximately 2950 feet).